The present disclosure relates to an image forming apparatus and an image forming method.
Conventionally, an image forming apparatus such as a copier, a multifunction peripheral, or a printer includes a report printing function. The report printing function is a function to output status information onto paper sheets. The status information includes network information of the image forming apparatus, and counter information indicating the number of printed paper sheets. A report printing that is executed by the report printing function of the image forming apparatus, is executed in a predetermined format for a predetermined item. As a result, when the report printing is performed repeatedly, a large amount of paper sheets and toner are consumed.
A typical image forming apparatus compares data before change with data after change in units of pages, and prints only pages that have been changed. This makes it possible to reduce the printing time and the number of sheets to be printed when a printing material with a plurality of pages is printed.
In addition, another typical image forming apparatus compares data before change with data after change for each area, and prints only parts that have different area information. This makes it possible to reduce the printing time and the number of printed sheets. Furthermore, this image forming apparatus prints an image indicating elimination on the parts that have been changed such that the changed parts are clearly indicated.